Conventional wax emulsions suffer from a number of deficiencies including high and low temperature instability, low temperature pumpability, lower than desired solids concentration, shear instability and sensitivity to contamination from various tramp products resulting in `break-out` of the wax from the emulsion. These deficiencies are in part the result of the non-polar and hydrophobic nature of the paraffinic hydrocarbon base oils which are part of slack wax emulsions.